Mealin Beats Team Mate After Late Overtake in Race 3

A great day for the Lanan Racing team saw pole sitter Rodrigo Fonseca in a race long fight with team mate Chris Mealin who beats him after a late overtake with the assistance of a safety car towards the end of the race.

The Lanan crew had the first three spots locked out with Fonseca starting ahead of Jack Bartholomew and championship leader Mealin. Sebastian Lanzetti had a great start but couldn’t challenge for the lead, while Harrison Newey who started in the midfield spun at the Deene hairpin to fall to the back of the grid. The only retirement on the first lap was from Ciaren Haggerty.

Mealin managed to take second from Bartholomew and lap later was fighting for the lead. The resulting fight caused Bartholomew to push fourth placed Jordan Albert off track as the field bunched up allowing Lanzetti to take third as Bartholomew loses positions.

On lap 5, of the 13 Akhil Rabindra started to challenge Lanzetti for the final podium position, he took the place but in doing so, clipped Lanzetti’s front wing causing damage for both cars. Lanzetti continued, but had a severe pace disadvantage, while Rabindra ran off track and lost many positions, the incident allowed Zubair Hoque and Albert to get through.

More problems for Albert saw him run wide once again, this time by Lanzetti as the race reached half distance. Lanzetti struggled to hold off the much faster field as Tom Jackson lead a queue of cars past the Hillspeed driver.

Albert would continue to fight with Lanzetti, but his day would conclude two laps later after a crash with Ameya Vaidyanathan bringing out the safety car. The field would have two laps remaining as the race restarted. But Fonseca was unable to keep the advantage over Mealin. On the final lap, Mealin launched up the inside of Fonseca into Deene Hairpin, going on to take victory and extend his championship lead.

The podium was completed with Hoque, the top five rounded out by Bartholomew and Jackson. While Will Palmer fought through the order, taking two places on the final lap to finish eighth.